MOSCOW/BAIKONUR SPACE CENTER, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian carrier rocket has delivered Kazakhstan's first communications satellite into orbit, a spokesman for Russia's federal space agency said Sunday.

The Proton-K carrier rocket with Kazakhstan's KazSat satellite took off the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 02:44 a.m. Moscow time (10.44 p.m. GMT). The satellite separated from the rocket's acceleration unit strictly on schedule, at 09:32 a.m. Moscow time (05:32 a.m. GMT), the spokesman said.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Kazakhstan watched the satellite's launch.

The satellite has an active service life of 12.5 years and has been built by Russia's Khrunichev space center under a 2004 contract with the government of Kazakhstan. KazSat is designed to provide communications for Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and a part of Russia.

Russia's federal space agency (Roskosmos) said the satellite's launch was a big success of the country's rocket and space industry.

"Roskosmos considers this as a big success of Russia's rocket and space industry and hopes for the space vehicle's further successful work," said Igor Panarin, the press secretary of the agency's head.

According to Panarin, the satellite was put into the designed orbit on time. Stable communications are being maintained with the satellite and all its parameters correspond to the norm.